What I'll do differently next time
Okay - I made several mistakes when starting up this game. The Most serious was not to question my Player carefully, about what he wanted in an RPG. We both assumed that Fringeworthy as presented in the book would be just fine. Secondly, I started out too far away from the Action. The Meta game sounded like a good idea, but in practice, it led to fights and slowed the game way down. Also, I started out too far away from the characters, so the Player did not empathize with the characters like people normally do. Third, I took too long to get into action and adventure - the game suffered from a lack of motion which. again led to a damaging lack of buy-in from the player. The Next Game The next game will begin focused on the characters. The location we start the player at will be one in the middle of an on-going problem. The Character's Starting Point This is speculative. I would definitely question my players carefully about their preferences and aims in a game before pulling the trigger on this. I'd start it as a Recycler Game. I invented the special effect for it in this story. I don't claim any special originality about it. I am sure it has been done. However the Terhmelern are better with cloning technology. The Characters are recorded minds of previous characters - or characters created originally for this game. Or even literary characters if the Player is in love with someone. The Starting Point is a Pocket world on New Game Node Zero's Alt Platform. It has a crystal "palace", again, reminiscent of Theatrical Kryptonian Technology. The Palace has clothing, equipment and tools, all germane to the Xenon technology base. There is a Quellor "Alfred" who helps the Characters arrange themsleves and get equipped. The Character Origin The Crytals imbedded in the brains of the PCs are recording devices which stored the UR-version's memories and skills. The cloned bodies were created in a few days, using superior Terhmelern Bio-technology. There is a vault in the Pocket world with tens of thousands of crystals. Why? The characters are intended to operate as highly specific, precision targeted Anti-Mellor weapons. This project was an isolated weapons lab. They didn't know of the Pangolisks, or else would not have pursued this project. The PCs are played a message where the project leaders, Terhmellern, Xenon and others summarize the Commonwealth The New Game Node Complex Like the original Set, this is a limited set of nodes At the extreme farthest west and extreme farthest east Alt platforms - Rings leading further west and east respectively are locked down extremly thoroughly. This was intended to act as a fire wall compartmentaliziing this collection of nodes from the violence and danger of Mellor war. However, in this node collection, there is existing FW traffic and contact. There are also pernicious Fringe Pirates operating in the area, as well as Orcs. Port Royal At least one Alt or Prime in the New Game Complex is a sort of "Port Royal" free port for fringeworthy Travellers. Category:Game Mastering